


Chosen

by sunshinekat



Category: Mafia (Video Games)
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-10-08
Updated: 2015-10-08
Packaged: 2018-04-25 10:52:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,074
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4957561
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sunshinekat/pseuds/sunshinekat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Whatever they had, small, warm...significant. It wasn't meant to survive a life of crime. <br/>[SPOILERS]</p>
            </blockquote>





	Chosen

A/N Be aware of Spoilers ahead :)

 

 

Vito didn't choose this life, this life chose him.

 

 

After the war, he thought he was numb to it. Witnessing death every day for so many years must have done it, it quieted the fear in his mind. Vittorio Antonio Scaletta was free of fear and so when he eventually returned to soceity he tried to rediscover his old self. He found it in his old buddy Joe. Friends, brothers, partners for life, that was what they were. But Joe was involved in something and before Vito could think he was sneaking into picking locks and stealing cars, he was running from the cops every other day and he'd never imagined he'd know this kind of freedom. It was freedom from poverty, from the restrictions that the military had instilled in him. He was his own man, and also the man that Joe had made him. Vito provided for his sister and his mother, he flirted with Joe's girls and lived without remorse or regret, those tiny remnants the war had allowed to live in him.

 

Then he met Henry.

 

His story was as sad as sad could be, Vito didn't really care, but he played at it. He observed Henry standing by the window during their stake-out. Vito's fingers sliding carefully over the cold metal of his weapon. Henry's thoughtful gaze wandered far from where they were, there was a pain that Vito understood. It was loss. Henry knew loss sure, but he wasn't the only person on the planet. They had all had there share of pain. If this was so, then why was Vito so intrigued? Then those hazel eyes of his flickered downward as their target pulled up and whatever daydream Vito had lost himself in was gone.

Seeing a man fall back after being shot was not new to Vito; he'd seen it before countless times. He'd seen men he'd thought of as friends killed before his very eyes, he'd witnessed men blown to pieces only a few feet away from him...but that bastard shot Henry. Vito thought that maybe Joe had shared the sentiment when they'd both emptied their rifles into the guy, but there was no time to think about it. Vito sped through the city to get him a doctor, and the fact that Henry still thought to pay him his cut proved that he'd made the right choice. Only then, as he backed away from the closed door and back to the car with the money in his hands did Vito allow himself to breathe. His heart wouldn't slow, his shirt was covered in blood and when he remembered Henry falling down it made him want to...

Shoving the money into his shirt pocket Vito looked down at his hands and watched them shake.

For the first time in a very, very long time he was scared.

 

Distance didn't help the consequences of this revelation. Prison was a miserable place for men who were not like him. He wasn't just some schmuck picked up for petty robbery like everyone thought he was. He'd killed a lot of people, he'd stolen for a lot of different reasons and that wasn't going to change any time soon.

With that as his reality, Vito settled into prison life all too easily, he busted a few faces, did a few favors and everything was going pretty damn smooth for him. Vito never stopped thinking about Henry though, he simply occupied his mind with other things. Occasionally he'd wonder about what he might be doing, pondered writing a letter or even asking Joe about him. He never did, but still, Henry was never too far from his thoughts. Vito's release from prison was about the same as his return from war. He was numb, he was cold and wound up. Joe wanted to celebrate but he'd made a pretty great mess of it, but in a way only he could. Burying bodies wasn't really Vito's thing.

 

Things were good...for a while anyway. Vito's life had started out kind of a wreck, it was inevitable for it not to return to that. Hardship was never far behind success, and in Vito's case it was always just a bit too much for him to bear.

Seeing Henry sitting in front of Leo just about broke his heart. He couldn't choose between them, a man who had been a better father to him than his own? A mentor whose trust and word had kept him alive during his time inside? Or the man he barely knew but thought of as a comrade?

Henry spared him from making that choice, choosing to let Leo live. Henry wasn't sure how to thank him, and when he thought about it, he never really got the chance.

Saving Leo was the success but seeing Henry bloodied and sliced up was the price. Henry being a fucking rat was the price.

After that nothing made any damn sense to him, Henry was gone like he'd never existed and the man he worked for was a target. If it hadn't been for Joe, he wouldn't have made it. Damn it all, they'd been friends all his life, Joe had taken him in, taken him out of the service...pretty much saved his damn life for all Vito knew. With Henry's loss still fresh in their minds of course they would stick together, of course they wouldn't turn against one another for any reason.

Vito had paid in blood for the things he'd done, the choices he'd made. His mother, his sister, Marty, Henry...

and now...and now he felt stupid for even trying.

 

Vito didn't choose to be come a criminal...no, after everything he needed to stop lying to himself. He'd gotten into the car of his own free will. He hadn't fought his way out either, he hadn't screamed nor cried. Too much had happened for him to die now trying to get to the car that took Joe.

It was just another price he had to pay.

 

War had freed Vito from choice, it made him follow orders and that was something he was good at. Empire Bay gave him choice, it gave him money and it gave him power but it never made up for what it took away.

In the end, he'd just chosen one war over another and lost what little he had left. 

 

 


End file.
